Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Migrant Workers

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of his Department paying the £65 application fee for settled or pre-settled status for EU nationals (a) employed by and (b) working as an outsourced worker in his Department; what estimate he has made of the total cost to his Department of paying those fees; and what assessment he has made of the risks that the EU Settlement Scheme poses to the retention of EU nationals (i) employed by or (ii) working as an outsourced worker in his Department.

Richard Harrington: The UK Government currently does not plan to pay the Settled Status Fee for its non-UK EU citizen employees. The fee is set at an affordable rate (£65), less than the cost of an UK passport.Outsourced workers are not employees of the Department and therefore this would be a decision for their employers.The number of non-UK EU citizens employed across the Civil Service is not consistently collected across Government. It is therefore not possible to estimate the cost of paying the settled status fee for non-UK EU nationals employed directly by the department.We value the significant contribution made by EU citizens working in the Civil Service and we want these colleagues to continue to play a full role in the work of the Civil Service. We are committed to supporting our EU citizen employees across the Civil Service, the important engagement with EU national networks across government will continue over the coming months.

Fracking: Earthquakes

Dr Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on what date the Oil and Gas Authority introduced the (a) traffic light system for monitoring seismic activity as a result of fracking and (b) the reduction in shut down time for fracking rigs from three days to 18 hours.

Claire Perry: The Traffic Light System was introduced by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and was announced in a Written Ministerial Statement of 13 December 2012 (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/written-ministerial-statement-by-edward-davey-exploration-for-shale-gas).It was adopted on the advice of three independent scientists who conducted an expert review of information available following seismic events at Preese Hall near Blackpool. The independent Oil and Gas Authority are now the regulatory body responsible for monitoring induced seismicity at hydraulic fracturing sites.The expert review recommended that operations should be paused if an event was detected above a precautionary threshold of a magnitude 0.5 but did not specify a pause period. Before hydraulic fracturing operations can commence, a Hydraulic Fracture Plan must be agreed between the operator and regulators and a minimum pause of 18 hours is required following an event above this threshold. This pause period has been in place for all hydraulic fracture plans so far and has been applied during the regulation of operations at Preston New Road.

Fracking: Risk Assessment

Dr Alan Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment he has made of the level of risk of fracking to (a) aquifers and (b) gas leakage at the surface.

Claire Perry: The Government has been clear that the development of domestic energy sources such as shale gas must be safe and environmentally sound. The UK has a robust regulatory system which provides a comprehensive regime for exploratory activities. The Environment Agency has carried out an assessment of the environmental risks associated with hydraulic fracturing and the measures that are needed to ensure that the local environment is protected. Based on this, the Environment Agency has developed and published detailed guidance setting out the conditions that fracking operations must meet. Businesses proposing to explore for oil and gas using hydraulic fracturing require environmental permits from the Environment Agency, which are subject to a detailed site-specific assessment. The permits set legally binding conditions on how activities are carried out so that the local environment is protected. The permit requires that the groundwater, surface water and air quality is monitored before, during and after operations. Extraction of shale gas takes place well below the aquifers that provide drinking water, which are usually located up to few hundred metres below ground. No fracturing is permitted less than 1,000 metres below the surface. The Environment Agency carries out regular inspections, audits and unannounced spot checks to ensure compliance with the environmental permit.